Mechanism for re-setting the pins in the pin box of a calculating and bookkeeping machine



Dec. 17, 1963 H. GELLING 3,114,502

MECHANISM FOR RE-SETTING THE PINS IN, THE PIN BOX OF A CALCULATING AND BOOKKEEPING- MACHINE Filed June 27, 1961 IIIIIIIIIIII/ll!!!lIIll!lllllllllllllllllllllI vlaallllllnann United States Patent 3 114 502 MECHANISM non nn snrriNo THE PINS IN THE PIN BOX OF A CALCULATiNG AND 1360K- KEEPING MACHINE Helmut Gelling, Dietlikon, near Zurich, Switzerland, as-

signer to Precisa A.G., Reehenmaschineniabnk, Zurich, Switzerland Filed June 27, 19M, Ser. No. 119,942 Claims priority, application Switzerland July 6, 1960 1 Claim. (Cl. 235--60) This invention relates to a mechanism for setting the pins in a pin box of a calculating bookkeeping machine, in which one end of each of the pins arranged in a reciprocable pin carriage serves as an abutment which limits the forward movement of a toothed rack arranged at right-angles to the direction of movement of the pin carriage for transmission of the numerals concerned to an accumulator, after one of the pins has been brought into its operating position by actuation of a numeral key. In known setting devices of this kind, rather complicated devices are provided for returning the pins after the forward movement of the pin carriage, from its operative position to its original position and while the toothed racks are still moving back; this is also known as cancellation of the pin carriage for short. In the setting device according to the invention this is achieved in an exceptionally simple manner by providing the ends of the pins which serve as abutments with an inclined ramp, so that each pin is returned from its operating position to its original position in the course of the reverse movement of the pin carriage initially by the end of the pin engaging an edge of a toothed rack and, finally, by the end of the pin engaging a fixed ledge.

By way of example, a construction according to the invention is schematically shown in the drawing.

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view through a setting device of an adding machine;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view but illustrating the lower part of FIG. 1, and showing a different position of the pin carriage, and

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken on line Ill-HI in FIG. 2, illustrating one toothed rack in engagement with a pin.

in the drawing, the machine comprises a ten key keyboard adapted to face an operator and beneath said keyboard there is located a re-setting mechanism which comprises a pin box 11 mounted for reciprocable movement in a transverse plane facing the operator. The pin carriage i1 is provided with a series of vertically movable pins .12 arranged in columns of nine pins each; these nine plungers correspond to the numerals 0 and 1 to 8. Such a column of pins can be seen in FIG. 3, with the corresponding numerals being shown above the plungers. For each pin 12 resilient stops of conventional form (not shown) are provided and said stops cooperate with abutments 13, :14 on the pin to cause the latter to assume one or the other of two terminal positions. Above the pin carriage 11 a conventional ten-key keyboard is provided as at 15 which is arranged as illustrated in FIG. 1 and shows only one key 16. This key is mounted on a guide element '17 which is resiliently urged upwards by a spring 18. The guide element 17 has a limb 18 which is adapted to engage a pin 12 disposed therebeneath and move the pin from its upper terminal or original position into its lower terminal or operating position, when the key 16 is depressed. In FIG. 1, the pin carriage 11 is shown in its original position and it is moved one step in the direction of the arrow 19 in said transverse plane when any key is depressed, so that the pins 12 of the next column of nine therefore come under the limbs 18 of the guide elements 17.

Ten parallel toothed racks 20 are reciprocably 3,114,502 Patented Dec. 17., 1963 mounted for movement in a longitudinal plane facing the operator and are arranged at right angles to the direction of movement of the pin carriage ill, and only one of the toothed racks 20 is visible in FIG. 3. The toothed rack 29 has a projection 21 which, as shown in FIG. 3, is in engagement with the lower end of a pin 12 which is in its operative position. The toothed rack 20 has a longitudinal slot 22, through which a movable transverse member 23, common to all the toothed racks, extends. In the original position of the toothed racks, shown in interrupted lines and designated 20', the transverse member .23 is at the outer end of the slot 22, in the position designated 23. A spring 24 yieldingly urges the toothed rack 22 in the direction of the arrow 25, this direction being referred to as the forward direction of the toothed racks facing an operator. All the toothed racks cooperate in the usual way with an accumulator 26. It need therefore only be mentioned that this accumulator has two gearwheels 27 and 28 for each toothed rack; after the pins 12 of the pin carriage have been set to the desired numeral and before the toothed racks 20 move forward, either the gearwheels 27 or the gearwheels 28 are brought into engagement with the toothed racks 20, depending on whether an addition or a subtraction function is to be performed. In order to promote this forward movement of the toothed racks 2% under the influence of the spring 25, the transverse member 23' is moved, in the usual way, from the terminal position 23" into the position shown in full lines in FIG. 3. In this position the transverse member 23 also serves as an abutment for limiting the forward movement of the toothed rack, if the movement of a toothed rack has not been limited by one of the pins 12. In this case a numeral 9 is transmitted to the counting device 26 and for this reason no pin corresponding to the numeral 9 is provided.

For moving the pins 12 from their operating to their original position, the lower end of the pin 12 which serves as the abutment for the projection 21 on the toothed rack 21; is provided with an inclined ramp 29. When the pin carriage 1.1 is moved in said transverse plane and returned to its original position as shown in FIG. 1 after setting of the accumulator 26, the ramp 29 may or may not mount an edge 36 on one of the toothed racks 20. If it does, then the pin concerned is immediately moved into its original position. If not, the ramp 29 mounts a ledge 31 formed by an edge portion on a fixed plate 32, above which the plunger box 11 is disposed in its original position. In the course of its return movement, the pin carriage 11 is moved slightly beyond its original position to the right so that all the pins will be returned to their original position in any event. Thereafter the pin carriage is again moved slightly to the left, to return to its original position; then, however, all the pins of the first column of nine will be in their original position, whereas the pin of the front column is moved inwardly as shown in FIG. 1 in the operating position.

Thus, cancellation of the pins 12 is achieved by a very simple means, namely by the inclined ramps 29 initially engaging, the edges 30 on the toothed racks during return movement of the pin carriage or by finally engaging the fixed ledge 31 in the event none of the racks are in the path of movement of the pin ramps 29.

By this means the pins '12 are reset simultaneously with the toothed racks 2t) without additional equipment, enabling this resetting to take place over a substantially longer period and therefore more gently and with less noise.

In operation, the operator faces the keyboard and depresses the keys in a conventional manner and when a key 16 is depressed, the same is moved downwardly against the action of the spring 18' so that the offset leg 18 will engage one of the pins 12 therebeneath and will move a corresponding pin downwardly to a set position from a (J rest position. The pin carriage i1 is moved one step in said transverse plane from the right to the left and above the racks 2%. Additional keys are depressed in a similar manner until the pins in the pin box have been moved to indicate a certain numerical amount. In the drawing it will be seen that behind each one of the pins shown in FIGURE 1 which may correspond to 0 there is arranged a row of pins which correspond to the numerals 1 to 8. As is known, no pin is necessary for the number 9. After all the numerals designating a certain amount and a combination of figures to be added have been entered by depressing the various keys 1 6, a function key plus is depressed, whereupon the series of toothed racks 2% will move from their rest position in a longitudinal plane normal to the direction of pin carriage movement and away from an operator facing the machine until the abutment 21 engages the lower end of a pin 12 in its operative position, for instance the pin for the numeral 4 (PEG. 3). During this movement of the toothed racks 26 the preselected gears 27 and 28 of the accumulator 25 are in engagement with the toothed racks 2i? depending upon whether the function plus key or minus key is actuated.

The pin carriage ii is then returned from the left to the right in said transverse plane and the toothed racks are then moved in their longitudinal plane in a direction toward the operator. In order to obtain the book position of the pin carriage as quickly as possible and without interference by the toothed racks, the projections 21 on the rack bars form an upstanding shoulder which engages the ramps 29 of the pins during the return movement of the carriage 11 which movement may be accomplished by suitable means (not shown). Should one or more of the rack bars be presented in the path of the lower ends of the pins the ramps 2? will slide over the projection 21 of said bar or bars and will thus cause an upward movement of the pins. When the pin box 11 approaches the abutment 31 the ramps 29 engage said abutment and are further elevated to a final or restored position. After the pin box 11 has been moved from the right to the left the bar 23 is actuated to retract the rack bars 26. During such movement the teeth of the rack bars are moved out of engagement with the preselected gears 27 and 2S and each ,iiasoa rack'bar is returned to its dotted line position shown in FiGURE 3. Thus, in the present invention it is not necessary to wait until the rack bars have been returned to their rest position by means of a cam and linkage arrangement in conventional machines in order to start the return movement of the pin carriage which is returned to its initial position by similar mechanism driven from the main shait of the machine (not shown).

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A calculating and bookkeeping machine, comprising in combination, a ten key keyboard adapted to face an operator having a plurality of numeral keys, a pin carriage mounted beneath said keyboard including a plurality of pins adapted to be actuated by said keys, said pin carriage being mounted for reciprocable movement in a transverse plane facing the operator, an accumulator, a plurality of toothed racks having vertically extending abutments on one end thereof movable in a plane extending longitudinally facing the operator, said toothed racks being arranged to transmit numerals corresponding to the selected pin position actuated by a corresponding numeral key to said accumulator, said vertically extending abutments being provided with a pin engaging upper edge portion, the lower ends of each of said pins being shaped to form oblique portions forming ramps with the oblique portions extending in a direction of movement of said pin carriage from its rest position to its setting position, and a fixed ledge beneath said pin carriage to engage said inclined ramps on said pins when said carriage is moved from its operative position to its reset position, the arrangement being such that each pin is returned from its operated position to its original position in the course of the re-set movement of the pin carriage initially by the ramps on said pins engaging said pin engaging upper edge portions and finally by said ramps engaging said fixed ledge by the lower end of the pin engaging and being moved to a re-set position by engagement with said ledge.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,989,231 Mark et al June 20, 1961 

